


Love is Coming Out to Play

by punk_rock_yuppie



Category: Buzzfeed Unsolved (Web Series)
Genre: Demonic Possession, First Kiss, Get together fic, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Podfic Welcome, Very mild body horror
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-22
Updated: 2018-08-22
Packaged: 2019-06-30 20:24:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,352
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15759042
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/punk_rock_yuppie/pseuds/punk_rock_yuppie
Summary: This ain’t over, we own the night—love in the middle of a firefight.Something is very wrong with Shane Madej.





	Love is Coming Out to Play

**Author's Note:**

> written to the tune of [love in the middle of a firefight by dillon francis ft brendon urie](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORm85o4OoKQ), which is a fantastic song. some choice lyrics inspired this fic (see the title and summary, haha) and i recommend giving the song a listen as you read!
> 
> this was a lot of fun to write. big thanks to hannah for beta'ing, as always! 
> 
> enjoy!

“I’ve got a plan,” Ryan says.

Beside him, Steven sighs. “I don’t like the sound of that. I _really_ don’t like the sound of that. At all.”

“Do _you_ have any ideas?” Ryan snaps. He looks away from the chaos of the office long enough to shoot Steven a glare. “We’re kind of backed into a corner here, if you didn’t notice.”

Steven purses his lips. “Still don’t like it,” he says.

“Still don’t care. Now stand back.” Ryan moves slowly, going from crouching on his hands and knees to standing almost entirely straight. He swallows around the lump in his throat at the sight that greets him.

The bullpen is a disaster. Almost all of the desks are either overturned or smashed to pieces; none of the chairs are intact, and the windows at the far side of the building are blown out. The walls around them are littered with dents and scrapes and people are cowering in all corners. In the center of the room stands the reason for all the destruction:

Shane Madej.

Or, at least, something wearing his skin.

Ryan licks his dry lips and takes a step forward, around the table. Something curls around his ankle and it takes all his willpower not to scream—Shane, or whatever that thing is, hasn’t noticed him yet. He needs to keep it that way. He looks down to find Steven’s fingers wrapped around his ankle, and big brown eyes trained worriedly on him.

Ryan drops to a crouch again. “It’ll be fine.”

Steven clearly doesn’t believe him.

“When this is all over, I’m totally telling Twitter how you were _worried_ about me.”

Steven scowls. “Fine. Go. Just, don’t do anything stupid.” He lets go of Ryan’s ankle and curls tighter in on himself.

“I won’t,” Ryan lies. He stands again, just as slowly as before, and watches as that _thing_ continues to rage its way through the office.

It still looks vaguely like Shane: tall and weirdly lanky, sporting his same abnormally large head. He’s in the pink button down and skinny cut jeans Shane had been in this morning, although they’re singed and ripped. There are enormous red wings protruding from Shane’s back and black claws extending from his fingertips. At one point, Ryan had caught a glimpse of the beast’s gaping maw—sharp and salivating, dizzying in its inhuman size.

Ryan approaches quietly. He sidesteps pieces of debris and shushes people who try to stop him. He scans the room and does a half-hearted headcount. Mainly, he’s trying to see if anyone is gravely injured, or dead. His hammering heart steadies fractionally as he continues to see bright, if frightened eyes looking back at him.

He catches Andrew and Sara watching him from across the room and gives them a shaky wave.

Ryan’s fingers twitch anxiously the closer he gets to the beast.

It’s more unsettling up close: it stinks like rotten garage and a burning house, and Shane’s mop of brown hair looks almost grotesque against the red and black horns towering from its head.

“Hey!” Ryan shouts once he’s within arm’s reach of the beast.

Its tail flicks once, twice, menacing and sharp as it slashes up the carpet beneath their feet. The beast turns to him and looks at him with mismatched eyes. On the left, the eye is entirely pitch black, no shine or gleam to it. On the right is Shane’s eye, pupil dilated but still a warm brown.

“Knock it off,” Ryan hollers as he takes another cautious step forward. “And let go of my friend, you fucking asshole.”

The beast laughs but it sounds other-worldly. It’s an impossibly loud, booming laugh and feels like a snide whisper at the same time. Ryan’s thoughts are starting to swim as he gets closer; the creature radiates a sickening heat, like a fever that won’t break.

The creature opens its mouth—the one that looks human on the outside but reveals something decidedly horrifying behind its lips—but Ryan speaks first.

“Shut up,” he says, almost with the same levity he might use with Shane. It works, at least. The beast freezes, mouth barely open, and stares at him. Its eyes don’t blink and Ryan doesn’t know if blinking would be better or worse; it probably wouldn’t blink both eyes at the same time, because it’s just _that_ creepy. After a beat, it speaks anyway.

**_“H U M A N”_ **

Ryan gulps, mutters, “That’s me,” before steeling his resolve. “I said, get out of my friend!” His voice cracks as he shouts but he doesn’t let it stop him.

The breast breaks into a grin, all sharp incisors that cut at Shane’s very human lips. **_“N O”_**

“Thought you’d say that,” Ryan says. He steps closer again and counts himself lucky that the thing possessing Shane finds Ryan amusing or fascinating or _something._ Because it’s not swiping at him with its huge claws and it’s not immediately going for his jugular.

Small favors.

He reaches up a shaking hand once he and the creature are toe-to-toe. Its breath is rancid up close like this and Ryan wants to gag; his eyes swim from the stench and he feels faint. The grin on the beast’s face hasn’t faltered. If anything, it’s grown, now looking faintly like a leer.

“Fuck this,” Ryan says, mostly to himself before he kisses the fucking beast. He hooks his hand against Shane’s jaw, the divots of his face made all the gaunter but this creature sucking the life out of him and uses the grip to hold the beast in place. He kisses the thing sweetly, kindly, _gently_ —the way he would kiss Shane, if he could. Tears burn at his eyes, but he’s not sure if it’s the emotion threatening to overwhelm him or just the stench rolling off the beast.

He skirts his tongue over Shane’s abused lower lip, and the beast hisses. It rears back and finally dislodges Ryan’s hand. It’s seething now, still grinning. It speaks slowly, as if talking to a child.

**_“Y O U             T H O U G H T             S O M E T H I N G             A S             F O O L I S H             A S             A             K I S S             C O U L D             S T O P             M E”_ **

Ryan gags around the taste in his mouth but shrugs. “Not really.” And then he’s lunging around the creature’s side to where his tiny water pistol full of holy water sits by his destroyed computer. He sends up a thanks to God and Father Thomas that he not only thought to bring it with him today, but that his desk is one of the few not in splinters.

The beast’s tail gets under his feet and trips him up just as his fingers curl around the small gun. He twists and manages to aim as he crashes onto his back. He holds the water pistol straight in front of him with his finger trained on the trigger. The beast looms over him and it’s doing that booming-but-quiet laughter again. It sees the gun but pays it no mind and keeps talking.

**_“Y O U             H U M A N S             A R E             A L L             T H E             S A M E             T H I N K I N G             T R U E             L O V E             C U R E S             A L L”_ **

“Never said I thought that,” Ryan says, irritated. The beast tilts its head, looking less and less like Shane by the second. It opens its mouth again, undoubtedly to say something else annoying, so Ryan finally squeezes the trigger.

The effect is immediate. Its skin starts to sizzle and the creature starts to shriek. It’s not a guttural sound but Ryan’s stomach roils all the same. He sits up slowly as the creature starts to shrink; it’s really not unlike the scene in _Wizard of Oz_ , except way less funny or adorable. Ryan watches with wide eyes as Shane’s body sinks to the ground. The red of the wings and black of the claws all seem to melt away, pooling beneath Shane before vanishing in a hiss of smoke.

Ryan, as he scrambles to Shane’s side, is vaguely aware of people approaching. They’re coming out of their hiding spots and cautiously getting close. Ryan doesn’t pay them any mind.

He reaches for Shane and gingerly cradles his head. Some color is starting to return naturally to Shane’s face, not a demonic red but instead a flushed pink, like he was out in the cold for too long. His body shaking hard enough to rattle Ryan, too, but it doesn’t matter.

He’s _breathing_ , Ryan notes with a sigh of relief. Shane is breathing, and even if he’s not opening his eyes, that’s good enough.

“You’re a fucking idiot,” Shane croaks after a few long minutes of silence.

“I know,” Ryan says, voice cracking. “But _you’re_ the one who got possessed.”

Shane groans. “You’re the one who takes us to those bullshit places.”

“And _you’re_ the one who’s constantly asking to be possessed. There’s no way in _hell_ this is my fault.”

They stop. Shane cracks open an eye, one that looks red but isn’t foggy or dilated any longer. Then, they both burst into laughter. Ryan practically falls over Shane and holds him close as they gasp for air. He can feel tears brimming at his eyes and spilling down his cheeks but he doesn’t care, doesn’t even care that all their coworkers are watching.

Eventually, it dies down. Someone around them is calling for an ambulance—maybe Annie? And it sounds like Andrew is directing people around. Ryan only half-hears it.

“That was fucked up,” Ryan whispers. Most of the crowd that had gathered around the two of them has scattered. Probably thanks to Steven and Andrew, Ryan has to admit.

“You kissed a fucking demon to save me,” Shane says with a crooked smile. “That’s definitely true love.”

“I kissed it to _distract_ it, so I could get this!” Ryan holds up his little water pistol.

Shane shrugs. “You still kissed a beast for the purpose of saving my mortal soul.” He reaches up and Ryan watches his hand shake, from exhaustion or nerves or fear. “So, thanks.” Shane tugs him down with a yank of his shirt, and then they’re kissing again.

Ryan sighs into the kiss. Shane’s lips are still split and dry, but he doesn’t taste foul and there’s no preternatural heat burning off him. He’s just Shane, smelling faintly soapy and a lot sweaty; he tastes like toothpaste and coffee, which is _gross_ , but not nearly as gross as before.

Ryan combs a hand through Shane’s hair.

“Ryan Bergara, you’re my hero,” Shane says in a slightly nasally tone.

Ryan rolls his eyes. “Shut up, we need to get you to a hospital.”

Shane nods. “Yeah, sure. Just tell the doc I got possessed, I’m sure they’ve got a protocol for that.” Even so, he lets Ryan help him to stand. Shane wraps an arm around Ryan’s shoulders and leans on him for balance.

People are giving them a wide berth now, watching them with wide eyes. Steven and Andrew are the only two to approach.

“You’re so stupid,” Steven says once they’re close enough. “I don’t care if it worked. That was stupid.”

“I never said it was a _good_ plan,” Ryan points out. “Just a plan.”

Steven shakes his head. “Ambulances should be here soon.” He looks between the two of them. “Want us to walk you down?”

Shane shakes his head. “We got it. You two okay?”

Andrew reaches for Steven’s hand and grins, though he looks more than a little harried. “Yeah. Better than you, that’s for sure.”

Shane weakly flips him off before nudging Ryan in the direction of the elevator. “C’mon, let’s go.”

Ryan waves off Steven’s second offer of help and before long, he and Shane are trapped in a little tin box inching its way to the bottom floor.

“Thank you,” Shane croaks.

“What?” Ryan asks, brow furrowing. “You don’t actually have to thank me for saving your life. It’s not like—it’s not like there was another option.”

Shane shrugs. “Could’ve staked me.”

“That thing wasn’t you.” Ryan squeezes his arm tighter where it’s wrapped around Shane’s waist. “None of this was your fault.”

Shane shrugs again and sighs. He lays his cheek atop Ryan’s head and inhales. “Still. Shitty way to start the week.”

“You’re alive,” Ryan says. “No one died. That’s all that matters.”

“Did someone film it, at least?” Shane asks as they start to hobble out of the elevator once it’s on the right floor. “You finally got your proof.”

“Shane.”

“I’m just saying, the Boogaras are gonna go _nuts_ —!”

Ryan kisses him again, just once, on the cheek. “Shut the fuck up, Shane.” He smiles at his best friend a little hesitantly.

Shane’s words die on his lips and he nods. “Yeah, okay. Shutting up now.”

They make their way outside and practically collapse onto one of the stone benches that sits outside the building. In the distance, the sound of sirens is approaching, fast and loud.

“You gonna ride with me?”

Ryan nods. “If they’ll let me.”

“You’re my boyfriend. They gotta let you.”

“I don’t think it works that way,” Ryan says, and pointedly ignores the way his heart skips a beat.

“I don’t care. You used true love to save the day, baby. That’s as good as it gets.”

Ryan shakes his head fondly. “Just, shut up already.”

Shane yawns and lays his head against Ryan’s again. “Wake me when the ambulances get here?”

“Yeah, of course.” Ryan watches the road. He startles slightly when something brushes his hand but manages not to disturb Shane. He looks down to see Shane’s hand creeping toward his free hand, resting on his thigh.

Ryan links their fingers.

“Can’t believe,” Shane says, yawning again. “That you pulled some Disney fairytale bullshit.”

Ryan wheezes. “You _wish_ you were a Disney princess.”

**Author's Note:**

> if you liked this, [reblog it on tumblr](http://punk-rock-yuppie.tumblr.com/post/177252832071/love-is-coming-out-to-play-shyan)!


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